Training in: Parenting & Behavior Behavior & Nutrition Safety & Support
Optimize your child's success with
Threshold Center for Behavior Consultants.
We focus on your family.
Welcome to Threshold Center for Behavior Consultants.
What We Offer
Our focus is on families and developing the parenting skills needed for their child on the autism spectrum.
- We teach you how to implement your child’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) and Behavior Improvement Plan (BIP) at home.
- We teach you to recognize and reduce behavior risks to your child and other family members. We teach you how to teach your child.
- We provide the tools to reduce setbacks in your child's progress and teach you how to use them.
- We teach safety and de-escalation methods.
- We evaluate the desired behavior results and describe the behaviors needed to achieve those results.
Threshold's consultants have more than 50 years of direct hands-on experience with autism, children, and adults on the autism spectrum. We focus on the family and ensuring you have the tools to be successful with your child.
Threshold consultants can help you learn effective parenting
Applied Training - Let Us Teach You
We provide consulting services that focus on helping families with children on the autism spectrum achieve the best possible outcomes. Our services are tailored to five critical areas:
1. Implementing behavior plans at home.
2. Evaluating and offering nutritional counseling.
3. Providing training for crisis management and de-escalation at home.
4. Offering first-aid and safety programs.
5. Providing guidance on the appropriate management of sexual behavior.
1.implementing BEHAVIOR PLANs at home
Parent Training - We Teach You How to Continue at Home What Your Child is Doing in School.
We convert "Behavior talk" to your normal language.
The best schools in the world are of little value if what is taught is undone when your child goes home. The best home environment is of little value if what is learned is undone when they go to school.
Every profession has a language that is shared between professionals. To them, every word makes sense. There are "mands and tacts." There are Inraverbals and intermittent schedules of reinforcement. What about setting events, and the list goes on.
Moms and dads do not have years to learn a new vocabulary, much less how to implement these plans at home.
We teach parents and siblings how to implement behavior and education improvement plans (BIPs and EIPs). We work with everyone involved to ensure consistency within and between settings.
Behavior Plan Training - (Your Application of the Science)
We teach parents and siblings how to implement behavior and education improvement plans (BIPs and EIPs) at home. We work with everyone involved to ensure consistency within and between settings.
Threshold Consultants offer workshops and training programs based on community needs we have seen over the decades.
Workshops typically last one to two days and include all materials necessary to gain skills and improve their understanding of continuing your child's home training program.
2.Evaluating and offering nutritional counseling
Nutrition Analysis and Behavior
. Almost half the children and adults on the autism spectrum and children with ADHD are diagnosed with a gastrointestinal disorder. The human body is a wonderfully balanced and sophisticated chemistry set. The body and learning suffer when the right chemicals (food) are not ingested. The brain and gut demonstrate the greatest loss of function. This can lead to behavioral issues and loss of productivity and learning.
- What is reinforcing for your child? Too often, therapists use candy or chips and high-sugar drinks. While these " reinforcers" are easily manipulated and always available, the sugar load is devastating to the teeth.
- Many children without dental care will have lost their permanent teeth before they are fourteen.
- Tooth decay and infections in the mouth can lead to heart disease and other potentially life-threatening diseases.
- Autism is also affected by food allergies. Our laboratories can identify allergies and determine if they are an issue.
- Our team assesses nutrition requirements and more nutritious ways to use food as a reinforcer for teaching your child.
- Behavior change requires reinforcers. Let our nutrition experts assist in developing a program for your child.
3. Offering first-aid and safety programs.
Managing a Bad day at Home
Everyone has a bad day. This includes children and adolescents on the autism spectrum.
What leads to crises?
- Learn how to get to the root cause of your child's problem.
- Training and hands on experience. The more you train to easier to manage.
- Feedback. We will work to ensure that you understand and get the feedback needed to achieve habit level.
- Learn why de-escalation is preferred over prevention and why prevention is the best approach.
- Criteria for restraint. Learn when, and why restraints are necessary.
- Retraining is necessary. Safety of your child and family require your skills and knowledge is recertified annually.
4. First-Aid and Safety programs.
911 Calls Take Time - Emergency care starts with you.
"Threshold Consultants offer workshops and training programs based on home emergencies we have seen over the decades.
- When your autistic child or family member is injured, staying calm is your first task. Your skills and confidence will help.
- Workshops typically last one to two days and include all materials necessary to gain skills and improve outcomes.
- Many medical issues can be successfully managed until Emergency Medical Support arrives.
- We teach you how to Assess, Determine, Plan, Implement and Evaluate the emergency.
- Assess: What happened?
- Determine the extent of the injury or emergency.
- Plan: What do I need to do first - remember your ABCs - Airway, Breathing, Circulation
- Implement appropriate emergency procedures.
- Evaluate: Is what I am doing preventing further injury and working?
- This is a continuous loop. Evaluate goes back to assess, determine, plan, implement and evaluate.
- Our home emergency planning programs are available for ages 6 and up.
In the decades since Threshold Center for Autism was founded, we have treated countless injuries to residents, students, staff, and visitors while waiting for EMS. We've safely removed and provided field treatment to automobile accidents on the four-lane highway in front of our property. Lacerations, broken bones, burns, and a variety of injuries have occurred over the decades. All were appropriately triaged, first aid applied, and the person was transported to hospital as needed. Definitive immediate care saves lives and reduces disability. You are your family's first responder. Let us teach you how.
5. Providing guidance on the proper management of sexuality.
Puberty: Identifying and Managing Sexual Behaviors
"Despite being such a common problem for schools, institutions, and families to manage, it is surprising how sparse literature is, particularly regarding why inappropriate behavior occurs and what education is effective." Beddows N, Brooks R. Inappropriate sexual behavior in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder: what education is recommended and why. Early Interv Psychiatry. 2016 Aug;10(4):282-9. doi: 10.1111/eip.12265. Epub 2015 Aug 12. PMID: 26265030.
- Sexual activity is a powerful primary reinforcer.
- Learn how to establish and manage boundaries.
- We'll review approaches to sex education and
- We'll review the most common issues with this population and families.
- Sexuality cannot be eliminated but it can be tailored to meet your teenager's needs.
- Schools may offer sex education to adolescents. We'll help you ask the questions important to your family.
Puberty: Identifying and Managing Sexual Behaviors
Teaching children and adolescents about sex is a challenge for most families. There are no appropriate training manuals. Many parents are reluctant to have "that" conversation. Sexual acting out is a relentless ticking clock as your autistic pre-teen approaches puberty. Are you prepared to have these conversations with your non-verbal pre-teen? The 30% of high-functioning autistic children will be a challenge but not an impossible task to educate. Then there are the other 70% whom social rules will not likely constrain. Let us help you with our training programs.
As a residential treatment facility in the early days of residential programs, we anticipated that puberty would bring an array of behavior changes and aggression. There was sexual acting out and male aggression that we learned to channel in productive directions.
Threshold was founded in 1978 with several 10-year-old children. Over the next 25 years, we watched our children mature and discover their sexuality. The following contemporary quotation should not be ignored.
A 2000 study in Florida of State support showed 28,000 recipients registered for state support through the Agency for Persons with Disabilities (APD). Twenty-eight percent were Level V and required Intensive support. Thirteen percent required Level IV Extensive needs. Eighteen percent were Level III and had Moderate support needs. Eleven percent were shown to have minimal needs (Level II). Finally, 30% had limited needs (Level I). Threshold supported the most difficult 59%. Each of our residents acted out sexually and needed behavioral management. Let us share our lessons learned with you.
Workshops typically last one to two days and include all materials necessary to gain skills and improve your child's behavior.
Research and our experience at Threshold showed that parents are often uncertain about their adolescent's sexual experience; this suggests they would benefit from receiving information about sexual development in adolescents with ASD.
This information is available through our workshops. Parents will learn about access to support to help them make decisions about when and how to discuss issues of sex and sexuality.
WE WORK WITH CLINICAL PROFESSIONALS TO IMPROVE THEIR COMFORT
Our Services - Professional Training
Threshold Medical and Dental Care
One of the most unfortunate discoveries was the number of edentulous preteens. The sugar load in their mouths from using sugar reinforcers and poor daily hygiene resulted in significant caries and calculus buildup.
Getting dental care was impossible or required a long wait. We built a dedicated medical and dental clinic at Threshold to serve Central Florida. Before we created this clinic, we often had to drive several hours. For safety, our transportation team included a driver and trainer. Often, we had to remain in the town overnight. The cost when we could get an appointment was prohibitive.
In 2008, Threshold built and opened the first medical and dental clinic designed for families with children and adult children on the spectrum. We trained our professional staff on the most effective patient and family management methods. This expertise is available through our consultants.
Once the word got out, several wonderful dentists and technicians joined our team. Our training programs were highly successful in onboarding and retaining clinicians for this population. At Threshold Consultants, we can show you how we did it and how to meet these critical dental hygiene needs.
Bringing out the best in families is our goal
Threshold 1972 in Teena Willard's home.
Threshold Center for Autism Clinic Waiting Room
